Please don't dial 911...

May 12, 2016 2:16 PM

Would like to give my USA-bought Samsung Galaxy Note 3 to my niece in Sweden...I have concerns about her being able to dial 911 (or Sweden's equivalent).

This question is 6 years old, and there's some difference of opinion within the answers, so...

Want to give my Note 3 to my niece (no SIM card and the phone will be "wiped"). My concern is that she may try dialing 911 (or 112, as I believe the case is in Sweden). Without a SIM card and no network connection (other than Wifi), would she be able to do so?

posted by kuanes to Technology (3 answers total)

Best answer: Can't answer your question specifically, but yes, the point of the emergency call only feature is that it's able to do so without a SIM card. The phone doesn't know where you'd be in this hypothetical emergency, so both Android and iOS have a whitelisted set of numbers they can call on this feature, including 911 and 112.
posted by thewumpusisdead at 2:33 PM on May 12, 2016

I suspect there would be a custom kernel/ROM combo that you could use on the device to root it and then prevent it from making any kind of call at all, emergency or not, and only connect to e.g. local wi-fi. This would be a good place to start.

I have only ever rooted and modded devices that I was "happy" to brick - a Nexus S and a Galaxy 4 - but it was fairly successful after some trial and error and you can get them to do some cool stuff.

That said, there may very well be an option for turning off calling hidden in the settings of the Note itself, or there may exist an app that will let you do this and lock it with a password, but it would depend on what version of Android you are running etc.
posted by turbid dahlia at 10:02 PM on May 12, 2016

Social rather than tech solution: tell the niece or get her parents to tell her about emergency calls and to never play around with them? I remember vividly being taught how to make a 999 call if there was an emergency at home and simultaneously learning the gravity of that act and that I should never mess around with it. I was about 5.
posted by mymbleth at 12:16 AM on May 13, 2016 [1 favorite]